The importance of intercultural competence in organizations during the 4th industrial revolution

Abstract

Nowadays people live in a world of many interacting cultures and spend a lot of time communicating across cultures with other people and organizations around the world. Knowledge and skills of intercultural communication and the employees’ familiarity with the cultural practices of their assignments are in demand in many professions. The need for intercultural competence research in the 4th industrial revolution arises from economical, political and labor changes, and increased use of information technology. The article is aimed at revealing the importance of intercultural competence in the organizations during the 4th industrial revolution. The publication presents the main findings of the research, which confirmed that employees' intercultural competence is influenced by their education and age; relationships among intercultural competence of employees and their education and age are moderated by different sectors; expectations towards international cooperation are positively related to the perceived importance of intercultural competence; public sector is different from others because of its expectations and tolerance relation, which is not typical in other sectors.